Corning Stock Drops After Q3 Guidance Miss: CEO Highlights 'New Optical Connectivity Products For Generative AI'

Corning Inc GLW reported a fiscal second-quarter 2024 core sales growth of 4% year-on-year to $3.60 billion, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $3.55 billion. 

The Apple Inc glass supplier's core EPS of $0.47 beat the analyst consensus estimate of $0.46. The stock price plunged after the print.

Display Technologies' sales grew by 9% year over year to $1.01 billion. 

Optical Communications sales increased by 4% year over year to $1.11 billion, reflecting record sales in the Enterprise portion of the business, driven by AI-related connectivity solutions. 

Specialty Materials sales increased by 18% year over year to $501 million, driven by continued strong demand for premium smartphone cover materials and semiconductor-related products. 

Life Sciences sales increased by 8% year over year to $249 million.

Environmental Technologies sales declined by 6% year over year to $431 million, reflecting the impact of the Class 8 truck downcycle in North America.

Hemlock and Emerging Growth Businesses sales declined 21% year over year to $296 million, primarily reflecting lower pricing for solar-grade polysilicon.

The core gross margin increased by 170 bps to 37.9%. The adjusted free cash flow was $353 million versus $310 million a year ago.

Chair and CEO Wendell P. Weeks said, “The outperformance was driven primarily by the strong adoption of our new optical connectivity products for generative AI, which drove record sales in the Enterprise portion of our Optical Communications business. The opportunity is only growing; in fact, in the third quarter, we reached an agreement with Lumen Technologies Inc LUMN that uses our new gen-AI fiber and cable system to facilitate Lumen’s build of a new network to interconnect AI-enabled data centers.”

Outlook: Corning expects third-quarter core sales of $3.70 billion (consensus $3.75 billion) and core EPS of $0.50 – $0.54 (consensus $0.54).

Price Action: GLW shares traded lower by 8.6% at $38.99 at last check Tuesday.

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Photo: Corning